Movie picks

Tools

For a movie about a brush with death, Danny Boyle's 127 Hours bursts with life. Its first 20 minutes are a rush of joie de vivre, with pulsing, jubilant Slumdog Millionaire-esque music. — Tricia Olszewski

Kimball's Peak Three

Burlesque (PG-13)

A small-town girl heads toward the coast, and a job in a burlesque club in Los Angeles. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (PG)

It doesn't help, that the adventures here have no heft or emotion, and that the only truly involving characters are the talking warrior mouse and a dragon who enters the story literally out of nowhere. — MaryAnn Johanson

Like virtually every film that addresses the world beyond, this one simply regurgitates a bland pudding of comforting nondenominational platitudes. — Scott Renshaw

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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (PG)

Despite some exceedingly familiar genre elements, Legend of the Guardians proves compelling because it doesn't do everything you would expect an animated feature to do. — Scott Renshaw

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Megamind (PG)

Megamind is the most brilliant supervillain the world has ever known, and the least successful. Over the years, he has tried to conquer Metro City and each attempt is a colossal failure thanks to Metro Man, an invincible hero until the day Megamind actually kills him. Suddenly, Megamind has no purpose. — Not reviewed

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Paranormal Activity 2 (R)

The terror continues as a young couple copes with a potentially evil spirit in their suburban home. — Not reviewed

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RED (PG-13)

It's not that Red doesn't provide individually entertaining moments. But satisfying performances and a few kicks of adrenaline aren't quite enough to make me care if this particular gun-toting badass can find inner peace. — Scott Renshaw

Picture Show, Tinseltown

Skyline (PG-13)

Survivors must fight for their lives as the extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth. — Not reviewed

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The Social Network (PG-13)

For all its real enough ideas — about young people making jobs instead of taking them — The Social Network falls short of full articulation. — Jonathan Kiefer

Tinseltown

*Tamara Drewe (R)

For all the familiar ground it covers, Tamara Drewe seems refreshingly like a rarity. — Jonathan Kiefer

Kimball's Peak Three

*Tangled (PG)

Why is something with such familiar components so praiseworthy? Because it simply nails those components. The songs are Broadway-catchy, all three central voice performances are terrific, and the comic relief proves genuinely amusing. — Scott Renshaw

The 11 years since Toy Story 2 have passed almost in real time. Due to a mixup, Woody, Buzz and company end up at Sunnyside Day Care, in yet another triumph of profoundly felt storytelling from Pixar that explores the theme of letting go. — Scott Renshaw

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*Unstoppable (PG-13)

Having played with fighter jets, race cars, submarines and subway trains in Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, director Tony Scott still isn't done hurling around huge deadly vehicles. — Jonathan Kiefer